I don't seem to have a forum for Geminus development at the moment.... so I'll put my little progress report in here.

The code that we demoed at Guildford made a few assumptions about the monitors that were connected, mostly that they were the same type, using the same MDF etc. Geminus now allows you to define your own modes with each screen in that mode having a different resolution, and optionally rotation. Four rotations are supported - 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

We've also agreed with Castle an extension to the kernel<->graphics driver interface which both paves the way for dual-head support in the kernel - I'm *not* saying that this will be developed, mind; don't misquote me - and assists Geminus in its task.

Pointer rotation is now implemented, so no more horizontal carets over writable icons in rotated screen modes

Along with the support for individual MDFs for each screen comes DPMS support, so Geminus will now power down any unused screens rather than just blanking the screen and leaving the screen powered. In truth I couldn't release the code without DPMS implemented because I'm very aware of how much electricity computers and monitors devour, and often people leave them switched on, just because they don't start up quickly enough.

So, what's left to do? Mostly the API for Cino and other apps to use, and some speed improvements that weren't quite ready to be demoed at the show such as the use of DMA; I showed this to a few people, scrolling a full rotated screen and the speed increase is dramatic. When the DMA code is generalised it can be used for all window dragging/scrolling on rotated screens and that should make the desktop slicker.

Then I'll be testing to make sure it's reliable, before calling on those lucky few who have two screens & cards already and are willing to help beta test.

After that, well, I have to say that I've become very attached to these LCD screens but with the now much higher resolution of my desktop I've really started to notice a few graphical operations that could do with a bit of optimisation.....